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TwisterPalooza fic writing challenge

A few years ago, while striving hard to write and sell fiction, I promised myself an award for every big step forward: I would treat myself by writing a fanfic whenever I finished a step in a project. I used to be fairly well known for my fanfiction, and the advantage of writing it is that it’s strictly for fun – you can’t sell work based on someone else’s characters (unless they’re in public domain), after all.

But I got extra busy, and other than one Fringe story haven’t produced any fanfic for some time. I finished my YA mystery, got a request for the full manuscript from an agent, sold Storm Chaser, wrote a bunch of short stories, and had some good news in other areas that will be announced shortly. Now I’m hip deep in preparing to publicize and sell Storm Chaser, which as I’ve shouted far and wide is scheduled to come out in June.

So how can I treat myself to some fanfiction while also continuing to get word out about my new novel?

Emily and I did some brainstorming, and came up with a way to combine the two: a fic challenge that we’re calling – wait for it – TwisterPalooza.

Here’s the idea: For the month of April, we’re putting up a challenge for writers to post stories that, in some way, are impacted by the weather. It could have tornadoes in it, as Storm Chaser does; or it could involve any other weather phenomenon such as floods, lightning, drought, or hurricanes. We’ll even accept something directly affected by weather conditions, such as wildfires, as well as earthquakes. (Under the circumstances use a little sensitivity if dealing with tsunamis, but understand that writing about mother nature causing harm is no different than writing about, say, gun battles – it’s just a story.)

It can be fanfiction – I know a lot of great fanfic writers – but it can also be original fiction, and we’ll accept any fandom whether it be movies, TV shows, books, or whatever. Want to see Harry Potter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer deal with a blizzard? Curious about how the cast of Supernatural would react to an earthquake that didn’t have a supernatural origin? Want to have a lightsaber duel interrupted by a flash flood? Always wanted to have Edward Cullen carried to Oz by a twister and magically turned into a marble statue? Well, who doesn’t want that?

Any length will be acceptable, from drabble to a chapter fic, and the winners will get a great banner made by my webmaster, Emily. Your fic can be posted anywhere – all we ask for is a working link that doesn’t require a login, and that you put the link on comments to this post. (If you want to be in on it just for fun without being in the voting, leave a note to that effect.) After about three weeks, we’ll put the poll up on a separate post and everyone can vote – if you have a longer fic that’s not finished, everyone can vote on what you have.

TwisterPalooza Challenge rules:

1) Can be any length original fiction, fanfiction, or poetry.

2) Must involve characters reacting to a natural disaster (bonus points for tornadoes, storms, or storm chasing, although of course that won’t count toward the winner.)

3) Must post a link to the story here: http://ozma914.livejournal.com/439157.html

Be gentle with me -- this is the first time I've ever created a challenge of my own. I’m going to post a little ficlet shortly myself, just as an example. (But I’m not eligible for the voting, of course.) Everybody have fun!